Plagiarism and The Internet Imagine our modern world without the Internet. The Internet provides many benefits to education and improve education system and academic environment. Moreover, it offers innovative ways for teachers and students to learn. Teachers use the Internet for assignments, test taking and board discussions. For instance, in the George Brown College professors use smart board which promote collaboration and enhance instruction. Also, the Internet increases the quality of our life in many ways. For example, we use it to video chat with family that are far away and to shop from our homes. The Internet makes our lives more convenient and easy. However, the availability of the Internet has also led to increased plagiarism. Some students prefer to use the ready information in the Internet instead of spending time for research and analysing original information. Hence, they turned to plagiarism. The Merriam-Webster dictionary defines “plagiarism” as “the act of using another person’s ideas without giving credit to that person”. The Oxford dictionary includes in its definition of plagiarism, not only taking the words or ideas of another, but also “passing them off as one’s own”. Easy access to the Internet has made plagiarism a rapidly growing problem in education system. Easy access to the Internet and an endless amount of information online makes an environment for plagiarism. Students find it easy to find, download, and copy the information. The Internet provides useful information for a student under heavy outside pressure to finish assignments by a due date. One study in the United States covering around 18,000 students from 23 universities showed that some 40% of students acknowledged committing plagiarism by copying, formalizing, and cutting and pasting (Talab, 2004, p.15). An annual survey of United States students found an increase – from 13 percent in 1999 to 41 percent in 2002 – in students who said they regularly copied and pasted text into their papers without attribution (Carroll 2007, p.20). Internet plagiarism has negatively impact evaluation system, student learning and reputation of academic institutions. Education system is based on the student evaluation system.
Almost every student has been there: staring at his/her computer trying to get an assignment done when they have twenty other obligations swinging over his/her head. Students are trying to find the fastest and easiest way to get the assignment completed. Many students will plagiarize intentionally or unintentionally at some point of their educational career. Plagiarism is the act of taking someone else’s work or ideas then calling that work their own. There is no acknowledgement being given to the original author. In Trip Gabriel’s “Plagiarism Lines Blur for Students in Digital Age,” the internet has created new challenges for students being able to give credit to ideas and information. Often, Students do not understand that information on
Plagiarism is an ongoing problem from high school to college and beyond. If you ask ten high school students about plagiarism, one out of every three students will have admitted to using plagiarism off the internet for an assignment. (Donald McCabe, Rutgers university) A survey conducted by Donald McCabe at Rutger’s University showed that out of 24,000 students at 70 different high schools, fifty-eight percent admitted to plagiarism. In another study he conducted with college students the numbers had increased greatly. Over the course of three years out of 63,700 students thirty-six percent admitted to plagiarizing from the Internet. Seven percent of those students admitted to copying word for word from a written source.(Donald McCabe 2002-2005 plagiarism.org) This survey he conducted just shows how plagiarism gets worse as students progress with their education if not not taught early.
Not making a good use of the internet and deciding to plagiarize can result in a failing grade. Students have been cheating all the way from High School without getting caught, and consequently they haven’t been lectured on plagiarism. Usually, teachers do not take the time to talk to their students about plagiarism. “many students claim not to have been confronted with the issue by parents or previous teachers except when personally caught plagiarizing” ( Petress). This lack of knowledge about plagiarism incites students to keep cheating. The only difference is that in college teachers have more advanced ways to grade papers. Technology has advanced. “...the same technology that makes it so easy for students to cheat is now aiding teachers in catching them” ( Hastings). College teachers are more strict regarding plagiarism than high school teachers; they can turn a plagiarized work into a zero. Students need to understand how useless it is to cheat. Everything is better than a zero, so students will get more benefit if they turn in a paper that
In Isaac Gilman’s article, one of the topics he discussed was the importance of academic integrity. While the internet provides a useful tool for learning new things, it can also be used to steal ideas and work. Plagiarism has been around for a long time, but the access to online information makes it effortless. Paper mills which gain a profit from selling
Most academic concerns are based on student morals. Plagiarism detecting tools are a better source related to website or internet plagiarism such as a student’s awareness of peer behavior. According to McCabe et al. Perception of peer behavior is an important factor in academic integrity McCabe and Trevino (1993, 1996, and 1997). In other words, if students recognize that most of their peers are going online to plagiarize, they may be more obliged to plagiarize themselves.
The concept of plagiarism is remarkably personal and this has been a subject of debate. Most critics argue that not only does technologies like the internet and smart phones distract students but it makes students perform poorly in school, but they also argue that it increases their chances to plagiarized. For example, in a research conducted in a university about the assessment and evaluation in Higher Education, 75% of students strongly agreed that using someone’s work without citing their work is wrong. If many of students believe this, why do somer student plagiarized. As a student myself, I knew students that plagiarized. Though they knew their actions were bad, they wanted to get a good grade.Most believed that it was not a big deal
However, the internet and steady pace of technology, the classroom is on web with it research. The increase in plagiarism is a direct link to the web. It is much easy to copy and paste today than it was 20 or 10 years ago, which does not take long to do either. It is super easy to pass some other’s work for yours today. Moreover, it is a logical projection to suspect that plagiarism is even going to become worse in the ensuring years because technology and web use probably will not slow of slow down. Plainly suggested, plagiarism is just so easy to execute or do today, and the detection of it, is like a rocket
TS – What causes students to plagiarize why do they do it and what do their peers and other classmates perceive when it is caught or revealed in a group and individual setting.
This causal analysis is to inform college students about the definition of plagiarism and how to avoid it. How students easy fall in some kind of plagiarism when they are copying someone’s work or paraphrasing without giving the credit to the author. Plagiarism has been growing as Susan D. Blum explained in her book My Word! Plagiarism and College Culture that 75% of the American students have admit that they cheated and 68% have convicted that they cut and paste the material without citation (pg.1). Some students do it on purpose and some are dishonest with their studies while on other hand some student does it when they lack time or are under pressure from work. There are main four types of plagiarism that includes cheating
Plagiarism is something that almost anyone can do without realizing they have done it. When a person takes the work of someone else or the words of someone else without giving proper credit they are plagiarizing. The internet is a source that we all use for things like pictures, music, and information. What most people don’t realize is that if you don’t have permission to use these items and fail to cite where it came from, then that’s considered plagiarizing (iParadigms, LLC, 2014). People who copy and paste work off the internet, out of a book, and try to pass it off as their own work are also plagiarizing. You may not borrow or copy anyone else’s work without proper acknowledgment of the person to whom it belongs to. If you are using words
For many, many years schools have been trying to stop students from plagiarizing materials. Detecting this plagiarism used to be easy because students only had access to books in the library, magazines, and encyclopedias. However, as the popularity of the Internet increased, so did the number of essays and papers being plagiarized. Students can easily go onto the internet and in no time at all find and essay on their topic of choice. For a certain fee they can buy the essay and have it delivered right to their doorstep, just in time to hand it into their teacher. Some essays you don’t even have to pay for. You can simply print them off of the computer. This rise in the internet information highway makes it harder for
A recent study of 500 middle and high school students by Dr. Donald L. McCabe, Rutgers professor and authority on academic dishonesty, revealed that half the students felt it was okay to have parents do their homework. Plagiarism is an extremely controversial issue, whether copying other students work in grade school or getting information from a document on the Internet, plagiarism plagues the minds of the youth of today. The question is how far will students take plagiarism according to their own personal code of ethics?
The standard views toward plagiarism are obviously seen to carry a negative stigma. Not too many people view plagiarism as a proud action. Why is it that plagiarism now a days is somewhat socially acceptable, but still in our academic culture viewed as cheating and consequently unethical? The Internet is the main breeding ground for plagiarism and the wonderful characteristics of the Internet makes plagiarism a lot easier. Ultimately, what is at stake here is that one will plagiarize from the pressure of achievement and, sadly, the detrimental retribution is the decline of moral philosophy. According to Dordoy 2002 survey, fifty-nine percent of students plagiarized because they want to get a better grade. Conversely fifty-four percent plagiarized because of laziness (Hart 91). The risk of plagiarizing is drastically raised when the consequences
Being a college student is difficult. College requires plenty of work. Some students have other things to do besides going to school; some of them need to work in order to pay for their tuition. When school is not the only thing students have to worry about, they might get behind in their classes, but they cannot fail them, so they have to find out a way to stay in both their job and school. A large number of students make the decision of cheating; they do it so often that suddenly it becomes a habit. Nowadays, plagiarism is extremely popular. Students do not like using their brain anymore; they rather copy and paste. To avoid plagiarism, students should do their own work, learn how to cite in a proper form, and understand that plagiarism can result in a failing grade.
Online academic learning gave options for many students to return to school. Online education also opened up the doors for new ways of cheating. Plagiarism is defined as theft of ideas or work from others (Council of Writing Program Administrators, 2003). This can happen either accidentally or consciously. Higher education institutions now prioritize on educating the students on plagiarism to prevent it from happening. Institutions also set penalties when dishonesty occurs. The students’ understanding of plagiarism is critical in averting accidental or conscious cheating during their student and professional career.